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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 666

A fine Great War M.C. group of nine awarded to Major H. C. N. Hill, Welsh Guards, late Northern Rhodesia Regiment

Having served in East Africa at the start of the War, Hill served with the Welsh Guards in both World Wars and forged a career in the Colonial Service

Military Cross, G.V.R., unnamed as issued; 1914-15 Star (8 Pte. H. C. N. Hill N. Rhodesian Rif.); British War and Victory Medals (2. Lieut. H. C. N. Hill.); 1939-1945 Star; France & Germany Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Jubilee 1935, mounted as worn, Great War awards polished, very fine (9)

M.C. London Gazette 2 December 1918:

'This Officer took over command of a company ten minutes before the attack. Throughout the whole advance he showed the greatest coolness and grasp of the situation. When a readjustment of the line became necessary he organised it with the utmost skill, after having collected all his wounded, which was done under heavy machine-gun fire. The small number of casualties suffered by his company was due to his gallantry and fine example.'

Hugh Charles Norwood Hill was born in Belgrane, Buenos Aires, in January 1890 and educated at Dulwich College. After leaving school he joined the Colonial Service and found himself in Northern Rhodesia upon the outbreak of the Great War. Swiftly enlisting in the Northern Rhodesia Rifles, he briefly returned to the Colonial Service in 1916 before making his way to the Household Brigade Officer Cadet Battalion in May of 1917. Commissioned five months' later into the 2nd Battalion, Welsh Guards, he served in France from March 1918, adding an M.C. to his laurels before War's end.

Return to the Colonies

Upon conclusion of the Great War, Hill returned to Northern Rhodesia and rose through the ranks of the Colonial Service to eventually become a District Commissioner and Acting Provincial Commissioner; this second stint at more senior level nonetheless involving a plethora of 'Boys Own' escapades, not least of which included attacks by man-eating lions! ('Lions and Men', Northern Rhodesia Journal refers).

Having married in 1922, from 1936-40 he was appointed Commissioner of the Turks and Caicos Islands (Jubilee Medal 1935). Re-commissioned as a Major in his old unit in March 1940 he spent most of his time on Staff duties but found himself a posting with his unit towards the end of the hostilities.

Hill and his wife retired to Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons and died in 1968; sold together with copied research.


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Sold for
£1,400

Starting price
£950